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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 1593.PDF
Garbage in, garbage out INTERNATIONAL Week ending 30 May, 1981 Number 3760 Volume 110 ISSN 0015-3710 Published in association with Aeroplane Monthly and Airports International by IPC Transport Press Ltd, Quadrant House The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, England. World's first arid only complete aeronautical weekly <g) Copyright IPC Business Press 1081 Founded 1909 Second-class postage paid at New York, NY, and additions entries. Editor David Mason Assistant Editor Tom Hamlll Defence Editor Graham Warwick BSc Deforces editorial Mike Gaines > Production Editor Philip Jarrett Sub-editor Graham Cowell i Technical Editor David Veluplllai BSc Technical editorial Richard Whltaker BSc Air Transport editorial David Learmount Qancral Aviation Cliff Barnett, Ian Parker BSc News Ian Goold, Julian Moxon BSc Art Editor Colin Paine Layout/Sub-editor Dennis Baldry Technical Artists Frank Munger, John Marsden Keeper of Records Chris Klelgaard BSc Pictures Stephen Piercey US Publishing Consultant Warren H. Goodman, Spring Valley Road, Ossining, New York 10562. Telephone: (914) 941-0805. Publishing Director Martin Morgan Editor in Chief J. M. Ramsden Advertisement Representative Michael Elmes Advertisement Production Howard Mason Overseas advertisement representatives: at back of this issue Telephone: 01-661 3320 (Advertisement Sales) 01-661 3267 (Advertisement Production) 01-661 3321 (Editorial) Teleflram/Telex 892084 BISPRS G US Advertisement Sales Manager Herb Salazar, IPC Business Press, US Advertising Sales, 205 East 42nd Street, New York 10017. Telephone: (212) 867-2080. Telex: 238327. Subscriptions Manager A. Waiden Telephone: England (0444) 59188 (UK and overseas subscrip tion rates can be found in this issue) Selling price in Eire subject to currency exchange fluctu ations and VAT. r****"! International Business Press Associates SBCJ Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation NEXT WEEK e Our Paris Special provides a complete guide to the show, with supporting features on leading European projects including Airbus A320, BAe 146 and Ariane. Addi tional features cover microlight aircraft and the sales boom in the business jet and turboprop market. THE startling Royal Commis sion report on the Air New Zealand DC-10 Antarctic crash (see page 1592) contains im portant lessons for the aviation community beyond those it ap parently sets out to teach. Per haps the most important of these is the old computer programmer's adage "garbage in, garbage out." The Commission, though its re port is liberally laced with quali fications—"In my opinion ... it seems to me ... I am not sure that it also did not . . ."—has determined that the flight plan computer for this route was for a long time programmed with navi gational co-ordinates near Mount Erebus that did not tally with the place names they were supposed to locate. An inertial navigation system (INS) understands only the co-ordinates programmed into it, and when linked to an auto pilot will fly the aeroplane to them whether they are correct or not. The INS has no choice. The human brain has a choice —whether or not to accept the in formation presented to it. The Commission reports that Capt Simpson, a pilot who flew the Antarctic route two weeks before the disaster, noted during his study of topographical charts in his flight planning that some com puter flight plan co-ordinates did not tally with the navaid on Ross Island that they were supposed to represent. He checked this out during the flight, found his cal culations correct and reported the discrepancy. What happened as a result of his report is not the subject of this particular treatise, nor is any of the alleged mismanagement in Air New Zealand's operations department. The world can pass judgement on those matters from the avail able reports and the many yet to come. Mr Justice Mahon, in the Royal Commission report, says: "It is clear this flight plan change would still not have resulted in disaster had it not been for co incidental occurrence of a white- out phenomenon ... In my opinion neither Capt Collins nor First Officer Gregory Cassin, or the flight engineers, made any errors which contributed to the disaster and were not responsible for its occurrence ..." Capt Simpson had a healthy mistrust of his INS and an aware ness of human capacity to make mistakes, so he checked. Will air crew continue to do this, as aero planes are fitted with more* automation, and as the equipment becomes yet more reliable? In their arguments for reduced crew complements airlines are insisting that the reliability of new computerised equipment, and the accuracy with which it can control and direct aircraft, make a reduced crew comple ment safe. They may well be right, but the vehemence with which they argue the reliability of the new kit is highly disturb ing. It is still made, programmed, and operated by humans. Air crew must still be "programmed" with as much scepticism, during their training and continuation training, as they ever were. They must still refer to topographical charts when they fly to places like Antarctica. The word "airman ship" must still mean something. Pilots should not descend below safety altitude in instrument meteorological conditions, trust ing purely to their INS when all other clues—lack of radio con tact with ground station, negative DME readout when in range of a TACAN, unexpected glimpses of land, and weather radar re turns—tell them that the INS, or their understanding of it, is wrong. D.L. IN THIS ISSUE World News Air Transport Defence General Aviation Business Private Spaceflight Industry International AIR DISPLAY ORGANISATION GROWTH WITH SAFETY WORLD MISSILE SURVEY Avionics Letters 1588 1590 1593 1596 1597 1598 1599 1600 1604 1607 1653 1654 Front cover: With the delivery of its new Boeing 737s, Chilean national carrier Lan Chile is expanding rapidly. In "Growth with Safety" J. M. Ramsden considers the vital flight safety rules for fast-growing operators.
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